Planting of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet could be
banned in the USA following acourt decision ruling the US Department of Agriculture
violated environmental lawin approving the
crop.
Californian district judge Jeffrey White said the USDA failed to
take a "hard look" at whether the genetically modified beet would
eventually share their genes with other sugar beet crops, or
related crops of Swiss Chard and red table beet.
Noting pollen could be blown long distances to related crops,
the judge ordered the agency to produce an environmental impact
statement.
A lesser environmental assessment was made prior to approval,
which suggested if pollen spread the herbicide-tolerant genes to
wild beet it was of little concern as they were considered a
weed.
No decision has yet been made whether US growers will be allowed
to plant GM beet next year following the ruling, but the organic
growers, food safety advocates and conservation groups that brought
the case have said they will press for a ban on planting until the
re-examination was done, when the case goes back to court in late
October.
The ruling is not without precedent. Two years ago a different
judge in the same court ruled farmers could no longer plant
genetically modified alfalfa until the USDA wrote an environmental
impact assessment for the crop.
"We expect the same result here as we got in alfalfa," Andrew
Kimbrell, executive director of the
Center for
Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group that was also involved
in the alfalfa case, is
reported
as saying in the New York Times. "It will halt almost any
further planting and sale because it's no longer an approved
crop."
Sugar beet growers,
Monsanto and sugar
processors are expected in October to defend the use of the
technology, which last year accounted for 90% of the sugar beet
crop in the USA.
"We're going to use that opportunity to advocate the need for
that technology and vigorously defend our growers' freedom to plant
Roundup Ready sugar beet," Luthar Markwart of the
American Sugarbeet
Growers Association said.
